INCLUSION DAILY
EXPRESS

Your quick, once-a-day look at disability rights,
self-determination and the movement toward full community inclusion around
the world.

Monday, November 17, 2003Year IV, Edition 177

This front page features 8 news and information items,
each preceded by a number (#) symbol.Click on the"Below the Fold"
link at the bottom of this page for 40 more news items.

QUOTES OF THE DAY:"We will work to make sure that people with
disabilities have the same rights as people without disabilities."
--Anthony Candido, chairman of the Milford (Connecticut) Mayor's
Committee for People with Disabilities, which is working with the city's golf
commission to allow a golfer to use a motorized cart on a local course (Fourth
story)

"There's a real misconception out there about Terri's
condition."--Bobby Schindler, on Friday's Oprah Winfrey Show, talking
about his sister, Terri Schiavo, who has been described as being in a
"persistent vegetative state" in spite of opposing testimony from dozens of
professionals (First story)

TAMPA, FLORIDA--Attorneys representing the parents of 39-year-old
Terri Schiavo on Friday appealed a judge's decision that blocked them from
joining Governor Jeb Bush in Michael Schiavo's challenge to the law that is
keeping their daughter alive.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is appealing Pinellas
County Circuit Court Judge W. Douglas Baird's decision to not allow Bob and
Mary Schindler to intervene in the suit filed by Mr. Schaivo against the
governor. The suit challenged the constitutionality of "Terri's Law", which was
passed by the legislature to give Bush the authority to have Terri's feeding
tube replaced on October 21, six days after it had been removed under a court
order.

Mr. Schiavo's attorneys, along with the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), had argued that the Schindlers should not be allowed to participate,
because the suit simply involves the question of whether the governor and
legislature have the power to override court rulings. Baird sided with Mr.
Schiavo.

"It is important that the parents of Terri Schindler Schiavo be directly
involved in defending the law that is keeping their daughter alive," said Jay
Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ on Friday.

"The actions taken by the state legislature and the governor were not
only appropriate but constitutional as well. Since 'Terri's Law' faces a
serious legal challenge, it is only appropriate that the court permit Terri's
parents to become a party in this case - to be directly involved - in the
battle to save the life of their daughter."

Also on Friday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal issued an indefinite
stay in the legal battle. Mr. Schiavo was to explain by Tuesday why his
challenge to "Terri's Law" should be sped up.

Terri Schiavo's case has been watched closely by disability rights
advocates for several years. Her husband and several doctors claim that she has
been in a "persistent vegetative state" since she collapsed from an apparent
heart attack in February 1990 and was without oxygen for several minutes. The
courts have supported Mr. Schiavo's claims that Terri cannot recover from her
injury, that she does not feel pain, and that she would not have wanted to
live. A local judge ordered doctors to remove the gastronomy tube that provides
Terri with food and water on October 15.

Terri's parents believe that she is alert and responsive and that she
might improve with rehabilitative therapies that Mr. Schiavo has denied her for
at least the past 10 years. They claim that Terri's husband wants her to die so
that he can marry another woman with whom he has fathered two children, and so
he can benefit from what's left of an insurance settlement that now pays for
her treatment.

The Advocacy Center for Persons With Disabilities is investigating the
Schindlers claims that Mr. Schiavo has neglected and abused Terri and that he
may have caused Terri's initial collapse, perhaps by strangulation.

The Schindlers and advocates have defended Terri's right to live, noting
that allowing her to die by starvation would reinforce the message that the
lives of people with certain disabilities are not worth living. With their
urging, Governor Bush championed the bill that gave him permission to order
Terri's feeding tube reinserted on October 21, and to appoint an independent
guardian to review her situation and provide the governor with
recommendations.

Last Friday, the Schindler family appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to
present their case.

WASHINGTON,
DC--On January 13, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear another case which promises
to pit the rights of people with disabilities against "state's rights".

The case involves George Lane and Beverly Jones, two Tennesseans that
use wheelchairs who sued the state of Tennessee for violating their rights to
equal access under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

Lane, who had lost a leg in an auto accident, crawled up two flights of
stairs for an arraignment on misdemeanor traffic charges at the Polk County
Courthouse because there was no elevator or other accommodations. When a
pretrial hearing was scheduled, Lane made his way to the ground floor of the
courthouse. Once there, he refused to again crawl up the two flights of stairs.
Even though Lane sent word to the judge that he was downstairs, officials
arrested and jailed Lane for "failure to appear" in court.

Lane decided to sue the state for failing to follow the federal
anti-discrimination law.

The other plaintiff, Beverly Jones, is a court reporter. She claims that
the state's failure to make county courthouses accessible to her wheelchair has
presented a hardship for her. Jones contends that she was unable to even enter
four county courthouses where lawyers had hired her to record court
proceedings. She listed another 19 Tennessee counties that have inaccessible
courthouses.

After lower courts ruled for Lane and Jones, Tennessee's Attorney
General Paul Summers appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

Summers is arguing that people cannot sue states under the ADA because
the states have "sovereign immunity". That argument worked two years ago in the
case of Alabama v. Garrett when the high court ruled that a state employee with
a disability could not sue her employer.

The Tennessee case, however, has to do with Title II of the ADA which
requires "public services, programs or activities" to be made accessible to
people with disabilities. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth
Circuit ruled earlier that states can be sued if they violate citizens rights
of due process -- which is a function of the courts.

A number of states, disability groups and legal associations have filed
briefs in support of Lane and Jones.

At the end of last week, the AARP and the Tennessee Disability Coalition
announced they would be filing a brief supporting Lane and Jones in the
case.

School officials called Johnson around 1:00 that afternoon to tell her
that Michael had experienced a seizure, that he had become "agitated" about 30
minutes earlier, but that he appeared to be recovering well.

Around 1:25 a back-up caregiver arrived to pick up Michael but found him
unconscious, lying on his stomach with his hands behind his back. She
immediately started CPR. The Parchment Police Chief, responding to a 911 call,
arrived at 1:57 and started using a portable heart defibrillator to try to
resuscitate the teen.

By 2:30, Michael was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

An initial autopsy report showed "no obvious anatomical causes" of
death. While waiting for the results of toxicology tests, investigators have
been consulting with nationally-recognized experts on restraint-related
deaths.

"I was horrified -- horrified is the word -- to hear that Michael was
being restrained in school," Johnson said. "I never discussed restraints with
the school, and if he was being restrained, he should not have been."

MILFORD, CONNECTICUT--The Mayor's Committee for People with
Disabilities is trying to work with the Golf Course Commission to allow a
golfer to use a motorized cart on the city-run Orchards 9-hole course, the
Connecticut Post reported Monday.

In the past, the golf commission has banned motorized carts from the
course because of concerns that they might get stuck in damp areas.

"There are areas that are wet and are meant to stay wet," said
commission member Frederick Lisman.

An attorney representing the golfer told the commission during its most
recent meeting that his client, who was not named, can play several holes
without a cart, but that he needs one to make it through the entire course.

Officials said that allowing motorized carts would require costly
upgrades and could increase greens fees. The city has acknowledged, however,
that it cannot exclude golfers with disabilities.

"We will work to make sure that people with disabilities have the same
rights as people without disabilities," said Anthony Candido, chairman of the
Mayor's Committee.

In 1997, professional golfer Casey Martin sued the PGA Tour because it
refused to allow him to use a motorized cart as a workplace accommodation under
the Americans with Disabilities Act. Martin claimed that his disability, called
Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome, made it painful and dangerous for him to walk
the long distances the PGA Tour requires during tournaments.

The PGA Tour argued that Martin's use of a cart gave him an unfair
advantage over other players, because fatigue was one aspect of the
competition.

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where, on May 29,
2001, it was ruled in Martin's favor.

e-Buddies® creates e-mail friendships between people with and
without intellectual disabilities.

e-Buddies is one of five friendship programs created by Best Buddies
International, a nonprofit organization that works to enhance the lives of
people with intellectual disabilities.

e-Buddies are matched based on age, gender, and similar interests.
Participants agree to e-mail each other at least once a week for one year,
although as the friendship develops, many e-Buddies write much more often!

Participation in e-Buddies builds computer, social, and communication
skills for people with intellectual disabilities, in addition to providing an
opportunity for friendship.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK--A new report, released by a coalition of New
York City advocacy groups, says that children with disabilities who are
included in regular classes are three times more likely to pass standardized
tests than those who are separated into special education classrooms -- as long
as they continue to receive the supports they need.

The 25-page report, entitled "Learning Together: Lessons in Inclusive
Education in New York City", highlights five schools in Brooklyn, Queens, and
Manhattan that use inclusive practices to provide a "first-rate education" to
students with and without disabilities. In these schools, special education
teachers work side-by-side with general education teachers, giving the students
the support they need in the regular classrooms.

"Integration is not only possible, but also desirable for children with
many different types of disabilities," the report concludes.

The study warns, however, that few schools provide the supports that
students need in the general classrooms, and that far too many children are
"languishing in segregated settings when they could benefit from more contact
with general education students."